A personal blog about the life & sauce of Annelise Rowe. Air Force & Air National Guard, Boise, Idaho, travel, healthy living, faith, and running.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Banana Cake.

I just want to preface this post by saying this:

This is probably the ONLY recipe you will ever see on this blog... Maybe.

As I've stated from the beginning... I don't cook. I don't grill. I don't sauté, or stir fry, or whip up anything in the kitchen. But occasionally... I bake.

This past weekend, I made a banana cake (my family's famous recipe) for my brother's high school graduation party. It's basically the only thing I'm good at throwing together, because it's too simple NOT to get it right. So, I figured I may as well share it. Enjoy!

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Aunie's Great Great Grandma's Banana Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cups shortening (I use Crisco)

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour (can sub gluten-free baking mix if you want!)

a dash of salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 or 4 very ripe bananas

Helpful hint: When my bananas get brown, I stick 'em in the freezer. After I accumulate a few (I always use 4 for this recipe), I take them out of the freezer, let them thaw until they're nice and mushy, and then add them to the mix. If they're not mushy and disgusting-looking as your squeeze them out of the totally brown peel... they just won't be as good. Trust me, they'll be gross. I included pictures just to emphasize their icky-ness.

Directions:

Cream shortening and sugar

Stir in eggs & vanilla, set aside

Mix flour and salt, set aside

Mash banana with soda, set aside

Stir all mixtures together

Pour into a greased 9x13 pan or 2 greased loaf pans

Bake @ 325 for approximately 45 minutes

If you use the "toothpick method" (where you stick a toothpick in the middle and pull it out to see if it's done) make sure it just comes out clean.

Frost after it's cooled.

My mom prefers this with cream cheese frosting, but I prefer butter cream, vanilla or of course rainbow chip.

You can TOTALLY add nuts or chocolate chips if that's your thing. I think they're nasty... so no nuts for me!

This is my mom's favorite cake recipe. She always had it every year for her birthday as a kid. It's definitely MY favorite cake... maybe it's because it's the one I always grew up with... or maybe because it's the only one I know how to bake!